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The Testimony of an 
American Citizen 

in France 

1914-1915 

A Lecture at the Ritz Hotel 

December 9, 191 5 

For the Benefit of the 

Secours National of France 

By 
WHITNEY WARREN 

Membre de L'Institut 



New York 

Privately Printed 

1915 



Price, 10 cents 



The Testimony of an 
American Citizen 

in France 

1914-1915 

A Lecture at the Ritz Hotel 

December 9, 1 9 1 5 

For the Benefit of the 

Secours National of France 

By 

WHITNEY WARREN 

Membre de L'Institut 



New York 
Privately Printed 

I9I5 






By transfer 
The Hiite House. 



PREAMBLE 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Before beginning my lecture I have to acquit 
myself of an agreeable task; I can well say that 
all France has confided it to me, since it consists 
of thanking you in her name for the unceasing 
generosity of which the United States has given 
proof since the declaration of war. This room is 
filled with people who have largely contributed 
to alleviate the sufferings of France and her 
Allies. Will they be kind enough to transmit to 
their absent friends the part of thanks which is 
their due? Your kind acts are not lost, you have 
gained solid gratitude. 

I will speak to you longer if you will permit me 
on this theme another day; on all that has been 
done, all that remains to be done and the practical 
results of your charitable efforts. 

To-day, I consider it as a duty before all others 
to pronounce first, these words which come from 
the very heart of France and address themselves 
to the very heart of America ! 



TESTIMONY OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I am devotedly fond of France, because she 
appears to me to be the gathering together of 
everything that is amiable; of beauty, of gener- 
osity, of loyalty, of liberty, of justice., because 
she unites grace and strength, courage and gentle- 
ness, patience and folly. I am fond of her because 
she has virtues that are not arrogant, because she 
consents very often to redeem these virtues by 
faults which I must confess are attractive, and 
finally because she does not know what mediocrity 
means and that throughout her history she always 
proved to be exceptional in her merits as in her 
faults. The great essential in life for nations as 
well as for individuals is not to be commonplace. 
We would do well to remember this for ourselves! 
France has a quality of soul altogether unique. 
She is never vulgar; she is a country by herself, a 
country that one does not find, so to speak, on 
every street corner. She is an object for a con- 
noisseur of beauty, an exquisite bibelot and it 
is proper to cherish her in the light of a master- 
piece. You know the attachment which I have 
always had for her, and this attachment has been 
greatly fortified during the sixteen months that 
I have lived her life of struggle and of valor. 

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Some people have been astonished that I have 
found we have not always rendered her sufficient 
credit for her extraordinary energy, that we have 
not sustained her in the cause of which she is a 
champion; in other words, that I have exaggerated. 
They say that one should adopt a more reserved 
attitude and not always distribute praise at the 
same address. I would invoke as an excuse, if I 
needed one, this principle which has directed all 
my life: "my friends are never in the wrong 
because they are my friends!" It is true that I 
would have taken her part blindly even though 
she had been in the wrong but knowing that she is 
in the right, I am capable of upholding her even 
in cold blood. 

It is just sixteen months that I took the first 
steamer leaving New York after the declaration 
of war so as not to be in the distance when France 
was in danger. I had found in her during peaceful 
times a welcome so gentle, so cordial that for me 
it was a sort of duty to give and to partake of her 
hopes and of her anxieties. It was impossible to 
permit myself to witness from a distance the 
aggression with which she was threatened and I 
could not resist the desire to go and join my 
friends at the moment when they were being 
cynically attacked. I thought that I could make 
myself useful by putting at the disposition of our 
traditional friends my good will, my heart, my 
thought and my words; my conception of neu- 

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trality has never been to tolerate crime without pro- 
testing and, at the moment of embarking, Belgium 
was already invaded. We were already accepting, 
without flinching, the worst of attacks against the 
rights of man. A French dramatic author appre- 
ciates thus the characteristic of one of his heroes 
"he keeps silent; he keeps silent; he keeps silent; 
one cannot stop him." We also were silent at 
that time and the future has proved that no one 
can stop us either. 

On board of the Lorraine there was but one 
other American and 800 reservists who had de- 
cided from the very first moment to put them- 
selves at the disposition of their country. They 
were all full of 'go' and enthusiasm and there one 
had the first sight of the magnificent ardor with 
which a people can leave their comforts, abandon 
their business, their family joys, when they feel 
that they are to defend the superior interests of 
justice, the patrimony of humanity and the soil 
of their ancestors. There were amongst all these 
fine fellows a certain number of deserters, of 
insubordinates, who had, for one reason or 
another, crossed the ocean to find with us a refuge 
from the gendarmes. From the first moment 
when they realized that it no longer was the mere 
game of -war but war itself that was on, that they 
were no longer asked to apprentice themselves 
to discipline, but that they had to submit for the 
very existence of their country, these hard-lots, 

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at the risk of imprisonment to which they were 
liable, never hesitated to expose themselves to the 
rigor of the law. Their one hope was that they 
would be placed in the most dangerous positions 
in order to pay for their passed sins. Many were 
afraid of being placed in prison on arrival and con- 
fided to me their anxiety on this score, but not 
one of them had hesitated before this possibility, 
for they thought that at this moment of peril, if 
they had only one chance to be permitted to take 
up arms this chance they ought to take! 

During the whole of the crossing they were very 
worried and they fully expected on landing to be 
taken by the law, no such thing happened, how- 
ever, and we all went together to the Chief of 
Police at Havre for our permits to enter. I re- 
member distinctly the Brigadier turning to them 
and saying in the most polite manner "et vous 
Messieurs, vous etes les deserteurs?" Upon the 
affirmative reply, and being asked for what point 
they wished their safe conducts, they all answered 
with enthusiasm "Luneville. " That is to say on the 
Eastern frontier, on the border line of Alsace-Lor- 
raine. The French instincts had been awakened 
in them, and at the first cry of alarm these irreg- 
ular citizens had fallen into line, thus proving that 
they had acted before under the force of a rebel- 
lious spirit which is a characteristic of the French 
temperament, but, in the face of danger they 
showed that they could be absolutely counted upon. 

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One must never let oneself be misled in the 
French appearance of frivolity and of indifference 
to convention; the Germans indeed have found 
it out to their expense, most happily! The changes 
in French character, as even Caesar noted, re- 
serve extraordinary surprise, and all the weather- 
cocks on the steeples of France know in the hour 
of need how to orient themselves in the direc- 
tion where appears at the same time the heredi- 
tary danger and the light which indicates where 
the line of duty lies! Towards the East! ! 

On arriving in Paris we found everywhere the 
trace of the patriotic fever which from one day to 
another had given to all hearts the same unison 
of enthusiasm! The Paris which we have all 
known as so sceptical and frivolous had become a 
city of fervor. The flags waved under the breath 
of idealism! 

It was the hour of the first and too-easy victor- 
ies, the hour of the ever-hoped-for revenge, when 
every Parisian walking through the street felt 
that he was taking a step in the direction of Strass- 
burg. The mobilization had been made in the 
most masterful manner. In forty-eight hours 
all the troops of the first line had been sent to 
their posts and all along the railways where were 
rushing the flower bedecked trains, the veterans, 
the guardians of the bridges and the crossings, 
saluted with their time-worn caps the youths of 
France going to their death singing. 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

Alas in a few days the fortunes of war precipi- 
tated a retreat of the Allied armies. In the north 
the French, the English and the Belgians gave 
ground before superior forces wonderfully equipped 
and organized. From Charleroi they retreated 
to Lille and to Arras. In the East it was neces- 
sary to give up the first conquests, too fast and 
too uncertain. A wonderful resistance was sus- 
tained by General Castelneau before Nancy and 
there the advance of the enemy was stopped, 
but in the center, the line had weakened, and the 
wonderful hills of Champagne were invaded! 
Reims was taken by the enemy and the roads 
towards Paris were open! At this moment of 
distress Paris presented an unforgetable aspect. 
One part of the population fearful of the victor- 
ious advance of the Germans followed the Gov- 
ernment, who, on the advice of the General in 
Chief, had resolved to proceed to Bordeaux, to 
preserve in face of possible eventualities its 
liberty of action. The other half kept the great- 
est calmness and awaited events with confi- 
dence. 

What pathetic days! The Germans advance: 
hour by hour they approach! They are coming 
down the valleys and their troops in long and 
heavy procession are following along the natural 
lines of the rivers. Here they are at Compiegne! 
Now they are at Senlis! Now at Chantilly and 
at Meaux. 

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From the hotel at which I had my room in Paris, 
I heard distinctly at dawn of the decisive day, the 
far-off rumbling roar of cannon. I will always re- 
member that morning! The sky was peaceful and 
before me lay the Louvre in all its historic splendor; 
on the left, the straight line which leads to the 
Arch of Triumph, and on the right, Old Paris, 
Notre-Dame, where prayers are being offered for 
the safety of the city. The thought that came over 
one was this: Is it believable that all this beauty 
and majesty will be destroyed by a horde, still 
drunk with the wines they have plundered in 
Champagne? Is it possible for men who have 
pushed to the highest point an organization of 
barbarism, to destroy and to mutilate the monu- 
ments that have been erected by this people, the 
most civilized in the world, the one to whom 
Europe owes the creation and organization of 
liberty? Because, undoubtedly, if they do push 
as far as here, there are a thousand chances to one, 
that they will wreak the vengence of their hatred 
and jealousy on these venerable and glorious relics. 
I firmly believe that they would have followed such 
a course: I know that an officious, if I do not say 
official, warning was addressed from Berlin to Paris 
by the intermediary of a neutral capital to warn the 
Americans in Paris that it would be wiser for them 
to get out, and as a matter of fact, a notice appeared 
in the newspapers the next day, advising us to 
move as quickly as possible. Why should Ger- 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

many, counting her chickens before they were 
hatched, why should she have honored us in her 
kindness if she had not forseen and premeditated 
the horrors that her army would commit upon 
entering the city? Why if it was not to be able to 
say in the case of disaster — as later, at the moment 
of the sinking of the Lusitania — "your blood be 
upon your own head, it was your own fault, you 
were warned." 

As for Paris, I still see myself the prey of my 
anxiety. What would one not give to be able to 
protect all this beauty which lay before me; to 
animate its stones in order that they might de- 
fend themselves, change by magic every window 
in the Louvre into a battlement! I suffered for 
these stones as one suffers for flesh about to be 
mutilated ! For are they not the flesh of time, the 
creatures and souls of centuries, do they not per- 
sonify as human effort the symbol of eternity? 

General Gallieni, at that moment military Gover- 
nor of Paris, on whom the heavy task had fallen of 
saving these glories for the sake of France and of 
the world, had posted upon the walls that wonder- 
fully short and virile poster " J'ai recu le mandat de 
defendre Paris contre l'envahisseur. Ce mandat 
je le remplirai jusqu'au bout: Gallieni." "I have 
received the order to defend Paris against the 
invader. I will carry out this order to the end." 

The words of this great soldier fortified all 
hearts. We took confidence, but, should the worst 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

happen, what then ? Already in the fifth and sixth 
centuries the Vandals came to Paris and destroyed 
all the marvels existing, of which to-day nothing 
remains but the merest vestiges. I thought also of 
Greece and Italy, alike ravaged by hordes without 
pity. What already had been seen were we going 
to see it again? The worst of trials; are they in 
store for this calm population who is striving by 
the dignity of its attitude and its activity to thwart 
the latent tragedy? 

It was not to be so! Destiny changes direction 
suddenly. Gallieni carries all his forces to the north 
of the city; he mobilizes all the taxis in order to 
transport his troops more rapidly to the limits of 
the entrenched camp. General Manoury accom- 
plishes marvels. Generals Foch, Maud'huy, De 
P Angle, Franchet, d'Esperey, and many others, ac- 
complished along the line great feats of military 
science, and Joffre, firm as a rock, presides over the 
destinies of all the armies. 

The Germans hesitate. Their attempt to en- 
velop Paris is lost. Joffre has given the order 
"retreat no further, conquer or die!" and they 
conquered for it is not written that France shall 
perish! This is the moment of the Marne! Paris 
has survived, and other days will dawn on the 
Louvre unblemished. 

Alas, it was impossible to prevent the realiza- 
tion of other nightmares! I have visited Reims, 
Arras, Ypres, pitiable sights, that show the im- 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

possibility of withholding barbaric custom when 
such custom is instinctive and hereditary. 

I have been over the battle fields where the 
French lay dead beside the Germans. The first 
filled me with envy because they had fallen for 
the noblest of all causes! The second filled me 
with pity; they seemed to have been sacrificed 
for the most criminal of ambitions. 

I have seen the graves strewn over the fields 
with a cap or a helmet crowning their little wooden 
cross and have wondered that the French in 
their generosity have reserved for these German 
invaders and despoilers sepulchres as carefully 
taken care of as those of their own soldiers. I 
have met refugees of the invaded countries, and 
have sympathized with their miseries which we 
must continue to alleviate. I have listened to 
their expressions of deep gratitude towards their 
benefactors; I have seen in the still bombarded 
towns the courageous population, generally ex- 
isting underground, but always smiling and cheer- 
ful, those that could not or would not flee, and, 
besides these visions often splendid but always 
sad, it has been given to me to witness other 
visions more inspiring and more invigorating. I 
have chatted with the French trooper, the foot 
soldier, the l Piou Piou,' the 'little French soldier,' 
to whom we will owe in the near future the vic- 
tory of Right and the preservation of our own 
Liberty. I have been with him in the trenches, 

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always jolly, always smiling, always 'Gavroche.' 
I can testify that there is nothing more noble, 
more touching than the intimacy without famil- 
iarity which reigns between the officers and the 
soldiers. It is a camaraderie that not at any mo- 
ment encroaches upon discipline. A deep solici- 
tude in the chiefs as regards their inferiors! It 
is a most extraordinary example of solidarity and 
equality before death in a people who are fighting 
for a holy cause. You will look in vain amongst 
the commanders of the French army for the arro- 
gance of the Germans, or in their ranks for the 
automatic submission to fear. You will find 
yourself before a people who are Free, who fight 
freely, and who understand fully the responsibility 
of the leaders, instead of having to obey as slaves 
who serve through intimidation or who bow them- 
selves before the iron hand. All the difference 
between these two people is this. On the one side 
the spontaneous and individual spirit of sacrifice, 
the most perfect development of independent 
courage, while on the other, the sacrifice by order 
and the most perfect development of imposed 
bravoure. I know nothing finer than the look 
of the French soldier. His straightforward, his 
frank and resolute, enthusiastic look as he re- 
ceives an order from his superior is an example of 
the fraternal feelings between the men and the 
officers. And what a sense of humor, mingled 
with a disdain of danger! I have seen them in the 

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trenches while under bombardment hold out 
their caps in the hopes of catching a piece of 
shrapnel. What disgusts them is the dirty and 
disloyal methods of the actual war as practiced 
by their enemy. "What annoys me," said to me 
one day, General Castelnau, "is to know how to 
fight such people, they seem to have no decency, 
no mercy, no honor." This, because it is the 
methods of Germany that have imposed them- 
selves in this war, and, let me say, it is above all 
the neutrals who are responsible for the prolonga- 
tion of these methods, in as much as we, the neu- 
trals, have never protested against their usage 
and have thus assisted passively at the breaking 
of laws of war and the perpetration of most evi- 
dent crimes. 

To take up this question must I again mention 
the tiresome violation of Belgium? Yes, I must, 
because up to the present time we have, at least 
officially, the air of ignoring it. Perhaps some 
day, the government will acknowledge that 
this is an accomplished fact and may then decide 
to be indignant. In the meantime, let us acknowl- 
edge it and let us be indignant in its place. Must I 
quote again the tiresome chapter of German 
atrocities? Yes! I must. Since officially, at 
least, the United States seems not to know of 
them, and yet atrocities proven and established 
by undisputable documents, even those of the 
German soldiers themselves are numberless. 

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Assassination of prisoners and wounded, pil- 
lage, destruction by fire, use of forbidden projec- 
tiles, employment of fiery liquids and asphyxiating 
gases, bombardments of open towns, Zeppelin 
and aeroplane raids against civil populations, not 
to speak of the crimes of the submarines. I have 
had in my hands the proofs and have witnessed 
that the Germans have not refrained before any 
of these miserable crimes. 

Perhaps, later, our government may discover 
that the origin of the rules and conventions in 
time of war is American. It dates from the year 
1863, and the birth of it is found in a work entitled 
"The instructions in 1863 for the armies of U. S. 
while in campaign." Now it must be remembered 
that, in time of war all conventions and treaties 
cease, except those established for time of war. 
Therefore, these conventions are called upon to be 
respected, and who is to see they are respected 
unless it be the neutrals, that is to say, the referees 
or umpires of the struggle who are the only ones 
capable of judging the blows that are fair and 
the blows that are foul, and is it not our fault, the 
fault of the neutrals, if the Allies are constrained 
to ultimately follow to the same methods, since 
by our indifference we have not had the courage 
to impose upon the Germans the cessation of their 
infamies. 

It would seem to be about time for us to have a 
healthy conception of the duties of neutrality. 

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I cite this page for the information of those who 
read, mark, learn and inwardly digest, from a 
work of a jurist-consult. 

"Governments have in all liberty accepted and 
signed for methods which they have considered 
the best from the point of view of their duty. 
They have sworn to use them in their controversies. 
These rules are afterwards contemptibly dis- 
carded by several of the contracting parties. 
This contempt, should it be treated with indiffer- 
ence by those to whom it does not actually cause 
suffering? I say, no! I say that they have at 
least the right and the duty to protest against 
the violation of the word of honor given by all the 
contracting parties, that it is a necessary part of 
the obligation incurred which otherwise risks of 
being void, if repudiated. 

"It is not only justice, it is interest which is at 
stake. The observance of conventions agreed to 
is of universal interest because if not, how is one 
to find security anywhere? The state which 
happens to be the victim can indeed say to each 
one of the other states remaining outside of the 
struggle; 'To-day, it is true, it is my turn, but, 
to-morrow, remember, it will be yours'." 

What answer is there to this, may I ask? Is it 
not logic and truth itself? 

Compare now our attitude to the one which 
this honest man proposes. Note well that he does 
not even suggest that the neutrals take part in the 

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struggle but simply, officially pronounce them- 
selves. In place of that we tolerate the crimes 
committed against all international treaties, crimes 
of which our own citizens are the victims! We 
watch waitingly! We are too proud to insist even. 
From time to time we send a note! I must say 
that we do not care how much we spend on paper, 
but of our honor, do we care for that? Or is it a 
term that no longer has any meaning; that no 
longer accommodates itself to the cynical and realis- 
tic necessities of our time. Our interest, do we 
take care of that? Remember " to-day it is my 
turn, but to-morrow it will be yours." 

Let us write this maxim over our doors and if 
we have not the honesty, in as much as we are 
neutrals and umpires, to raise our hand in warning 
against the adversary that breaks all the rules of 
the game, uses felonious methods and goes even 
to crime in order to get the better of the struggle, 
at least the simple instinct of self-preservation 
dictates to us our line of conduct and brings us to 
ward off the final blow which one of these days will 
fall upon us and which really is falling on us now. 

I am full well aware that after the affair of the 
Lusitania we carried off a diplomatic victory. 
We sent a note and we received one in return and 
then the Arabic was torpedoed, amongst others, 
and finally the Ancona. On board the Ancona 
there were twenty American citizens lost; to be 
sure they were but Armenians who had been 

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naturalized in the hopes of escaping Turkish 
atrocities. Nevertheless they were American 
citizens and it would appear from the happenings 
that American citizens at sea do not run very 
much less danger than Turkish citizens on land. 
In the answer received from Germany to our 
notes, I have heard, it is announced that a certain 
sum will be paid for the lives of the Americans 
lost in these various disasters. There is one thing 
I fervently pray and that is that Blood Money 
will be refused — it seems too pitiable. It seems 
too indecent to fix the tariff on human life. Are 
we not rich enough ourselves, not to accept the 
money offered in indemnity for such miserable 
crimes? Are we not sufficiently provided with 
the world's goods to take care of the families of 
those who are lost? Do we really believe that 
everything has a price and that one can treat an 
affair of honor as one treats an affair of munitions ? 
We have all over the world the reputation of 
being a commercial nation. It has its advantages 
— but people are reproaching us already too much 
for profits which the actual situation is inevitably 
bringing to us. But there is a limit! The Govern- 
ment is not only charged to avoid getting us into 
war, it has also the choice of the manner of pre- 
serving, and the responsibility of, our dignity, and 
they must understand that there are questions of 
sentiment which cannot be regulated on a money 
basis. I am convinced that speaking the way 

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I do, I interpret the intimate thought of the vast 
majority of my fellow citizens. I would indeed 
be sorry if it were possible to think otherwise. I 
have the conviction that all real Americans in 
their inward inwardness feel an uncomfortable 
unrest when they open their newspapers in the 
morning and see the manner in which we are 
playing at hide and seek, the suppleness with 
which we get out the way and the humiliating 
ingeniousness with which our masters use our 
name to obtain satisfaction at any price and to 
attenuate by their cleverness of tongue or by 
seeming solutions, the aggressive and injurious 
intentions of Germany. I ask you all if it has not 
come over you more than once in the last sixteen 
months to have felt wounded in your self-respect 
and in your modesty. What has come over us! 
Who has thus the right to make us hang our heads ? 
We know that we are in the wrong, or at least, 
through the attitude of our Government, that we 
have the appearance of a people who are deceiving 
their conscience. Germany is our enemy as she 
is the enemy of all Free people. We have nothing 
in common with those who base their grandeur 
upon pillage and upon terror, with those who 
taking the name of liberty in vain have annexed 
by violence Alsace, Lorraine, Slesvig-Holstein, 
Bosnia, Herzogovinia, Triest and the Trent, 
with those who have cowardly invaded glorious 
Belgium and are now strangling gallant little 

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Serbia. All our past, all our traditions protest 
against such actions! Spoliation, brutality, in- 
timidation, such are the methods which Germany 
has continually chosen to spread out her Empire 
and proclaim her power. Two of these methods — 
brutality and intimidation — are daily employed 
against ourselves. Suppose for one instance that 
our Ambassador, Mr. Gerard, should behave 
himself in Berlin, under similar existing conditions, 
as Mr. von Bernstorff has in New York and 
Washington. How much time do you suppose the 
German Government would stand for it, and, when 
they had asked him to mind his own business, and 
packed him back to us with, or probably without, 
the honors due to his rank, as they did with Mon- 
sieur Cambon, would we not be the first in our 
good common sense to say, "it serves us jolly 
well right" ? But our patience it seems has not yet 
been put to a sufficient test. Dr. Dumba, however, 
who has an idea of what the limits are, has ex- 
pressed himself on his return to his native land 
with a frankness that we must almost admire. He 
has published his opinion on our attitude and that 
of our Government and this is what he has said: 

"Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lansing will end by mak- 
ing the United States ridiculous!" We might 
almost believe him for certainly he was our guest 
long enough to form a pretty fair judgment. 

Has the moment not come when we must speak 
out and put an end to German insolence? All our 

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principles and traditions point out to us to contrib- 
ute morally, and without reserve, to the great work 
which the Allies have undertaken. We who have 
given our blood for emancipation of the Blacks, 
are we going to remain indifferent when this time 
it is the question of the emancipation of the Whites ? 
I wish by this to say that Germany dreams of a 
universal serfdom and she is searching to install 
by all the means in her power, her domination, 
financially, commercially, industrially, morally and 
physically; by insidious infiltration through natu- 
ralization, by shameless propaganda, and, when the 
moment seems to have arrived, by the brutal 
attempt to impose herself through her military 
despotism. Some day, no doubt, we will know the 
complete development of her plan and her whole 
program will be applied to us, to the very limit, if 
we have not the foresight to take warning; if we 
do not profit by the occasion which the present war 
furnishes to stop forever her tyrannical arrogance. 
We must be blind not to see that we are directly 
interested in the defeat of Germany, and this 
blindness may finish by costing us dear. 

There is a man, who a long time ago, admirably 
understood and defined the error which we are now 
committing in holding ourselves officially outside 
of the struggle without daring to assume our moral 
responsibilities. This man of whom we speak is 
really one of our family, because he is a French- 
man and he contributed, perhaps more than any- 

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body else, to our struggle for freedom. His name 
was Beaumarchais. Listen to this gentleman who 
speaks to his government at the moment when in 
1776 we were fighting for our liberties and while 
France seemed to be hesitating as to helping 
us — "It is absolutely useless to continue to do as 
we are doing, or, better still, what we are not doing, 
to remain any longer passive; to continue in our 
obstinate determination not to take any part and 
to await the solution without acting. The worst 
policy is to remain without taking any action what- 
ever;" and, further on, he says, "but let us fear 
to waste in idle deliberations the only moment left 
for acting, and while spending our precious time in 
always saying, it is Hoo soon/ let us fear that soon 
we shall be forced to cry out with sadness 'Heavens, 
it is too late I' " 

We will always find French words to guide us, 
because there are between the French and ourselves 
affinities that are eternal. It is in the books of 
France that we must take the principles of our 
line of conduct and not in the books of the pendant 
jurist-consults of Germany.! How many have we 
seen of those learned men who pass their time in 
playing with words, arguers, economists, statisti- 
cians, legislators, obstructionists of every kind, 
who are everlastingly raising objections but who 
are incapable of taking a decision. The people 

1 1 refer here to Mr. Wilson's source of inspiration for his work The State 
as indicated by him in his preface. 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

who are by no means foolish, have finished by 
solving their own problems; look at England, who 
without further occupying herself with their bab- 
bling determined promptly to engage the action on 
the side of honor. This action which I am asking 
for us, what does it amount to? Does it necessitate 
our raising an army and sending our fleet? No! 
a hundred times no! I absolutely insist upon 
repeating this. We have no reason for putting in 
line a battalion of men nor a ship. It is necessary 
only that officially the moral obligations of the 
United States are no longer played with, that it be 
known officially once and for all, that the immense 
majority of our fellow citizens have chosen the side 
of those who are in the fight for Right and Liberty; 
those two inseparable principles to which we owe 
our existence. All I ask and all that the Allies ask 
is no direct participation in the war, but the official 
declarations that will show to the world our moral 
attitude. Are you of the opinion that the actual 
government interprets by its ambiguous manifesta- 
tions the sentiment of the United States? No. 
What, therefore, is a government that does not 
represent the soul of the people? It is we who 
think, but it is the government which acts, and 
if it acts, contrary to our wishes, ought we sit by 
and pretend to be satisfied? Again I say no. In 
order that there be harmony between the people 
and the government, either the government must 
live as the people think or else people must think 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

as the government lives. Let us be very wary how 
we lean towards this last solution which leads to 
all sorts of compromise and all kinds of abdications. 
Let us measure the risk we are running of offend- 
ing Germany. To begin with, she already contends 
we are offending her; what further would be the 
result? That we would weaken her before the 
world by the strength of our moral disapproval; 
and I have always contended that of all forces of 
a country, moral, financial and physical, the 
strongest, the most righteous, is the moral; that 
she would find herself the next day less formid- 
able for her enemies and for ourselves. Other 
protestations, would immediately follow ours; the 
neutral countries of Europe are only awaiting a 
gesture from us to imitate us. They also have a 
sufficiency of the Germans' arrogance and tyranny. 
They also ask secretly for the defeat of Germany. 
At the present moment there is not one neutral 
nation who is not hostile to her, but they are the 
feeble nations, without defense and easy of attack, 
and do not dare to lift their voices; in place of 
which, we are a big people, strong and full of re- 
sources. Our duty is to put ourselves at the head 
of the powerless neutrals and to direct the concert 
of protestations! We undoubtedly lost, at the 
beginning of the war, an opportunity to play the 
most magnificent role; is this a reason to persevere 
in our error? That which we did not accomplish 
in the hesitancy and disorder of the first moment, 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

is it not possible for us to accomplish now that we 
are master of the situation, that we have had the 
time to reflect and after having assisted at crime 
following crime? Even if we are behind hand let 
us give the signal of indignation and you will see 
that we will have immediate followers. The 
strength of Germany will be diminished of all the 
approbations and all the mute consents she still 
wrings through the power of terror. It will be an 
excellent operation, an operation which responds 
at the same time to the aspirations of our conscience 
and to our real and true interests. By disavowing 
those who have always wished for war, who have 
conducted it shamefully and without scruple, by 
closing about them the circle of disdain and disgust, 
we would impair their forces, that is to say, we 
hasten the moment towards peace and we diminish 
our chances of some day having to enter the lists 
ourselves. It is a great error to think that in tak- 
ing frankly the part of the Allies we increase our 
chances of getting drawn into the war. On the 
contrary, we get further away from it, we perhaps 
even suppress the day when we will be drawn into 
this conflict to defend ourselves against an un- 
limited tyranny; we precipitate the hour of judg- 
ment when Germany conquered and disarmed, 
will be for long years incapable of being harmful. 
In sustaining with all our moral authority the cause 
of the Allies we are working towards universal 
deliverance and in particular, to our own prepara- 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

tion of future security. Is it to keep in peace that 
we hesitate before frankness? Is it to maintain our 
tranquility that we lack courage? I say that we 
are making a bad bargain and that if we really 
mean to keep out of the war we have to dare. 
However, as the first principle of all diplomacy is to 
foresee the worst that can happen, even the least 
probable, and while in all surety I believe we will 
not have war, we will at least hold ourselves upon 
the defensive and we will prepare ourselves for the 
most uncertain of eventualities. Thus we will 
draw a profit from circumstances since we put our- 
selves on record, which is not the actual case, of 
not fearing anybody. Above all we will create 
for ourselves, friendships, guarantees for the 
future. Sooner or later peace will be made and 
Germany will be beaten; sooner if we lend a hand, 
later if we remain inert, and what will that peace 
be if not the commencement of a future war? War 
a long off, I am ready to agree, but war nevertheless 
because it is an illusion to think that war will ever 
come to an end as long as men live, that is to say, 
as long as rivalry exists ! 

And in this war, at the same time near and afar 
off, and which will take place between no one can 
foresee what adversaries, who can say, that in our 
turn we will not be involved? And then for the 
price of our indifference and weakness of today 
what Allies will we find? It is a false reasoning 
which consists in saying with satisfaction "We are 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

so neutral that all the world is disgruntled with 
us." If we could remain neutral and at the same 
time make ourselves beloved by all the world, I 
would say "Amen! our egoism does not harm us!" 
but do you not see that we are isolating ourselves? 
Is it wiser for us to incur the hostility of all of the 
world, or to assure ourselves of the sympathies of 
a part of the world? In the position in which we 
are, we must choose; for we are either going to have 
both parties on our back or else we are going to get 
the friendship of one of the parties. The problem 
is clear, and it is absolutely illusionary, I repeat, 
to think we can content everybody. Universal 
hatred may exist but not universal love! 

Under these conditions on which side are we 
going to seek our friends? I think there is no 
hesitation. Our interests and our inclinations 
command us to turn toward France. We have 
not forgotten what we owe her. It is also time to 
think that tomorrow she will be victorious. I 
passed sixteen months there and I am certain of all 
that I saw and say. France and her Allies are 
sure of their ultimate success. They have im- 
mense reserves of men with the possibility of 
creating for themselves financial resources long 
after Germany will have emptied hers. They have, 
thanks to England, whose actual efforts are so 
admirable, the mastery of the seas of the entire 
world, which assures them continual breath while 
Germany is bound to smother between her fron- 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

tiers; and again they have a confidence which is 
steadfast and are resolved like one man to fight 
out to the bitter end. I shrug my shoulders when 
I am asked if they do not desire peace. There 
is indeed somebody who desires it; however, let us 
not be duped by appearances; the Germans have 
carried off undeniable successes! William II is 
ready to enter Constantinople! but let us reflect. 
Where did he really want to go? To Paris, to 
Calais, to Petrograd and having found it impos- 
sible to force his way to any of these places, he 
has turned toward the Orient, and he has broken 
through the only open door, that of Serbia! Con- 
stantinople is a makeshift! The Napoleonic 
dream of the Kaiser is tumbling down! He is 
drawing out indefinitely the line of battle of his 
army which means that he is weakening it. He is 
rushing from right to left. He is slashing about. 
He is playing with his elbows to force a passage, 
but each time he butts into a blind-alley. On 
the way to Paris, a blind-alley; on the way to 
Calais, a blind-alley; towards Petrograd, a blind- 
alley, tomorrow we will see another on the way to 
Egypt or to India. William has spread himself 
out and infallibly will exhaust himself; so it was 
with Napoleon, because he wanted to be at the 
same time in Lisbon and in Moscow. What the 
Kaiser is looking for in his weak imitations of the 
great Emperor, is beyond doubt the island of St. 
Helena, but, as was said to me by the caricaturist, 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

Abel Faivre, "he will not even get there, because 
he has not sufficiently merited it!" 

I saw before my departure, General Joffre, at 
his headquarters; he was kind enough to receive me 
and talk to me for some twenty minutes. I do 
not wish to repeat all that he told me but I may 
quote these textual words of his "Germany will be 
defeated, and on our front. The wastage of her 
men is considerable. We see the moment ap- 
proaching when she will be unable to hold on any 
longer;" and when Gen. Joffre speaks, no one 
would for one minute doubt what he says. He 
is a man of simplicity and straightforwardness, 
one without any pretension whatsoever, sitting 
quietly in an arm chair before an empty table, 
no pomposity and no setting. This man, who is 
responsible for France and for the entire world, 
as a matter of fact, has the air of not for a moment 
knowing it. He gives the impression of calmness 
and firmness. He is a rock. Certainly it is not 
he who will give in before the end is accomplished. 

It is not either Gen. Gallieni whom I saw the 
day before I embarked. The new minister of war 
completes marvelously the General-in-chief; he 
gives the impression in movement and action of 
great energy, and between these two heroic broth- 
ers-in-arms, the most perfect understanding 
reigns. Gen. Gallieni has also positively decided 
to follow the struggle up to the moment that 
the Allies are in a position to dictate their peace. 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

In passing, I take pleasure in citing a word of his 
made towards the end of the interview, a word 
which will flatter the pride of every American. 
As I was leaving I said to him, "I cannot for- 
get, General, that a little over a year ago you were 
the only salvation which stood here in Paris be- 
tween us, the devil and the deep sea" and he 
replied, "You forget Herrick! and when you next 
see him give him my compliments. We had in- 
deed many conferences at that critical moment." 
This homage rendered to our Ambassador 
whose conduct was so admirable, so full of dig- 
nity and sang-froid at the moment the Germans 
were descending on Paris, touched my heart. 
It will touch yours also, I am sure! 

Therefore, France, England, Italy, Belgium, 
Serbia, Japan and Russia will have nothing to 
do with a lame peace, and since they do not wish 
it, they will not have it; but, what must happen 
is that in their day of triumph we shall be en- 
titled to their gratitude. Do we forget that France 
has a right to our gratitude. I was reading com- 
ing over on the steamer the correspondence of 
LaFayette and I found this page referring to 
this then struggling country, which will not leave 
you indifferent. "Defender of this Liberty which 
I cherish, freer myself than anybody, in coming 
as a friend to offer my services to this Republic 
so interesting, I bring only my frankness and my 
good will. No ambition, no personal interest. 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

In working for my glory I am simply working for 
their happiness. The happiness of America is 
intimately associated with the happiness of 
humanity, she is destined to become the sure 
refuge of Virtue and Honesty, of Tolerance and 
of Tranquil Liberty." These are expressions of 
confidence which must move us even in the days 
we live in. Do not let us allow them to fall ! Let 
us say in turn that "Defenders of this Liberty 
which we cherish it becomes our honor that we 
offer our services (in the measure I have stated) 
to the Republic of France so interesting, that we 
bring to her aid our frankness and our good will! 
Let us say that the happiness of France is 
intimately bound with the happiness of human- 
ity, and thus let us prove that we are indeed the 
sure and respectable refuge of Virtue and Hon- 
esty, Tolerance and Tranquil Liberty." 

I hold also to say to you that the sentiments of 
France as regards the American Nation are excel- 
lent. They feel that they owe us a great debt of 
gratitude; for the offers to do good and alleviate 
the miseries of war. France is not a country of 
ingratitude; she practices virtues that undoubt- 
edly can serve us as an example; her tact and her 
extraordinary sensibility have not given way be- 
fore her energy. She knows everything that we 
are doing for her unfortunate children and she 
knows with what heartfelt enthusiasm we have 
placed our purse at her disposition. She feels 

133-] 



AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

that in spite of the inertia of our government she 
possesses with us sympathies which are unfath- 
omable. Her finesse is not the dupe of appear- 
ances; she understands perfectly the difference 
between a people and those who govern them. 
She is astonished, however, that we do not arrive 
at imposing upon those who direct us the atti- 
tude that is dictated by our hearts. At the 
beginning I know that she counted on us as the 
arbitrators of the conflict, to avoid that, in the 
heat of the fight, the control of the tempers of the 
combatants should be quite lost. She has been 
deceived. She finds that we are officially indiffer- 
ent to the attack upon the rights of peoples, and 
she has shaken her head, while sighing deeply as a 
sensitive person would, upon constating the 
failings of friendship. However, she does not 
judge us with severity, because for her also, 
never are her friends altogether in the wrong. She 
attempts to find an excuse for us. She says 
"America is so far off!" but back of this exclama- 
tion one feels a sadness and a disillusion. And how 
can it be otherwise? She thought that we were 
as she is the champion of Right. Who knows if 
in the bottom of her soul she does not cherish 
more severe reproaches. Who knows that she is 
not straining a point to repress her resentment 
and that she is not saying to herself inwardly — 
"They are becoming more prosperous in this 
our darkest hour." And she invokes perhaps the 

[34] 



AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

shadow of LaFayette who spent for us all that 
he had, and she says perhaps still further to her- 
self, "I know well that one must not confound a 
people with its government, but this war happens 
to be a war of the people. There are fighting by 
our sides governments who did not wish to enter the 
line but who were forced to do so by their people. 
Why did the United States not sustain these 
nations? Why is their enthusiasm dissimulated? 
Why do they not by their spontaneous energy 
force their heads to give us what we desire and 
what every one of the citizens is ready beyond 
doubt to grant? That is to say, their moral 
support! Why do these citizens not oblige those 
who speak for them to throw aside their ambig- 
uous language and to speak out frankly the gen- 
erous feelings which animate the mass, the feeling 
of which we have gathered the proof and char- 
ities in the last sixteen months. 

Perhaps again she says to herself — "Are their 
leaders really unreasonable and afflicted with an 
obscure judgment ? Do they not see that Germany 
is practising all that a Washington and a Jeffer- 
son detested? Do not they render an account 
that Germany must be beaten; that her victory 
would represent the reduction to serfdom of all 
the universe to the profit of one, whereas the 
victory of the Allies will represent a sacrifice of 
one, the most vile, for the profit of all?" And 
when the French have made these fair reasonings, 

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AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

I know that they regain confidence in us and 
they remember the words of Lincoln — "You can 
fool all of the people some of the time; you can 
fool some of the people all of the time, but you can- 
not fool all of the people all of the time." As a 
matter of fact, they feel we have men who have 
resolute and honest minds. A Parisian said to 
me the other day — "Roosevelt and Bacon have 
saved the honor of America before the world by 
their courage." Yes, I know! What Roosevelt 
says is too true to be nice but do not let us forget 
that what one Bryan used to say was too nice to 
be true! 

Admirable France, you are worthy of being 
loved and of being helped. Nobody here can 
imagine the marvels you have accomplished in 
the last sixteen months. Patient, valiant, without a 
murmur while her virile sons are fighting at the 
front, while more than 20,000 of her priests are on 
the firing line; she sees in the background her old 
men, her children, her women, assuming also 
their part of the battle so that she may be vic- 
torious, their part of the fatigue in order that she 
may not cease to remain beautiful in her suffering. 
Nurses who are devoting themselves, great ladies 
and humble ones, young girls and women of the 
people, old peasants, peasant women of every 
age who harvest the crops, who sow the seed to 
nourish the army and the population and who 

[36] 



AN AMERICAN CITIZEN IN FRANCE 

keep up the fields and the gardens to preserve 
the beauty of the glorious countrysides! 

Admirable France! Our France! Our garden of 
France! I traversed her the other day in going to 
Bordeaux, passing through the gentle Isle de 
France, through the blonde Touraine and through 
smiling Poitou. Everything was in good order 
along the way, nothing neglected; the aspect of 
the plains and of the hills proved what care those 
left behind were taking of the property of those 
who had gone, so that, for those happy enough to 
return, everything will appear as amiable as on 
their departure — even so that the dead may rest 
assured that their patrimony has not suffered; 
and I passed by houses where they were weeping 
without my knowing it because all of the houses 
along the road had the appearance of happy homes. 

Admirable France! Our France! where sorrow 
is as brave as joy, where the beings are superior 
to their destiny and have not the air of believing 
in their unhappiness ! Shall we not cry out to her 
that we are with her? Shall we not have the 
remorse of our failings ? The device of LaFayette 
was Cur Non? Why not? That is a Latin quota- 
tion which seems to me fit for America. Cur 
Non? Why not? I ask you? 



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